This week in the MathML Track, we made a lot of progress on our first batch of equations. 47 simple equations were completed and ready for review. We also updated our Workspace to reflect our new production schedule that has been expanded to include more document generation techniques since the equations only make up a small portion of the content.

Jasper gave a few pointers on basic math logic, but for the most part our initial batch looks correct (we’ll add the source to the site soon) and we are establishing an efficient process for checking our work and generating the final SVGs. Although our final output will be SVG 1.1, we think the best method to check our work is by reviewing an audible rendering of the equation using Design Science’s MathPlayer to be certain that the structure is correct since it is not always possible to determine that visually with Presentation MathML. This will also ensure that we are compatible for screen readers down the road.

In researching our best practices, we discovered that the MathJax 2.0 CDN now has an SVG output option! From the MathJax website:

In addition to the HTML-CSS and Native MathML output available in v1.1, MathJax v2.0 includes an SVG-based output jax. This should prove to be more reliable than the HTML-CSS output, as it avoids some CSS, web-font, and printing issues that the HTML-CSS output suffers from, and it currently has no browser-dependent code. The SVG mode even works in some ebook readers (like Apple iBooks and Calibre).

We couldn’t agree more and are very pleased to see this new feature! It would be wonderful if the individual SVGs could be downloaded, but that does not appear to be an option at this time. Fortunately, stand-alone SVG versions of MathML equations can be created using our tool of choice, SVGMath.

Greetings from #rdcHQ! Today, we conducted a little research into the accessibility space to support our documentation efforts. Using a plugin for Internet Explorer called MathPlayer from Design Science, we created audible renderings of Jasper’s equations! Cool!

The Sandbox Speaks!

Surprisingly, MathPlayer does not work with the MathJax CDN, which is unfortunate given all of the other features that MathJax supports based on the prior work of Design Science. Hopefully, support for audio renderings for equations in ALL browsers is on the horizon. And although SVG is supported in Internet Explorer 9, the equations that we transformed to the SVG format using SVGMath are not rendering in Microsoft’s latest web browser offering. More news soon.

In more productive MathML news – Jasper has 70 equations left to author before we beta-test the workflow that we have developed. We’ll be releasing this with our documentation at the Rural Design Collective Launch Party!

Zoo Adventures, Part II

In RDC Home Movie News, Nate has released Part II of Zoo Adventures! He worked with Friend of the Rural Design Collective and mentor Dave Wilhite of PortOrford.TV to finesse some of the earlier parts of the video in iMovie, so we are re-publishing Part I as well.

Today’s MathML Meetup was primarily research oriented (although we have 60 new equations to add to the repo with the next update!). Jasper is ready to focus on new technologies as he codes the equations, so we moved ahead a bit in our production schedule to review MathJax.

We <3 MathJax!

MathJax is a fascinating new technology that will solve the vast majority of our cross-browser rendering issues. MathJax recently launched its Content Delivery Network (CDN) Service which makes it very easy to embed the application into a web page without a dedicated server. We’ll be implementing it soon on our code repository so you can see the equations build along with the working code. It offers many cool features, such as copy-and-pasting source, zooming text, and has hooks for text-to-audio (which we will be taking a closer look at soon in the MathML Track).

The following tutorial demonstrates some of these key features:

Since MathJax relies on JavaScript, we will need a solution for users who may have JavaScript disabled. We also need print-quality equations as the Title 24 document set will be converted from HTML to PDF format. It is possible that MathJax will support the conversion process – but we will still need a default graphic to cover all scenarios and to provide a localized solution (i.e. one that works without an internet connection).

Our initial idea is to default to the original file (which is a low-quality .JPG file), however we believe that we can batch convert the MathML files (.MML) files to Scalable Vector Graphics (.SVG) which will result in high quality vector images. Jasper is looking into writing a script that will automate much of this process, as well as scripting the container for the equations and index number as referenced in a previous post.

Next Steps

With this new discovery, and Jasper’s mission of making his work as accessible as possible, we are beginning to think about how many more platforms we can support, such as EPUB3 (which includes support for MathML and SVG). We’ll make any alternative formats available in our repository and will be documenting our discoveries at the close of the program. Technical documentation will be an important step in this track, so we’re beginning to think about content and structure now as we continue our work.

#RDCHQ News

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The Rural Design Collective is a remote mentoring program with a local focus designed to help motivated, creative people begin a career on the Internet. The HQ is geographically located in Port Orford, OR - but we could be anywhere - stay tuned!